Seminar Presentations

RAPID PROTOTYPING IN INDIA
A journey from luxury to necessity

S. J. Bakshi, Protosys Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India.


Introduction

As more and more Indian companies try the Rapid Prototyping technology, the realization of its true benefits and economics become evident. This paper attempts to highlight these factors with appropriate case studies and also clear some of the myths as listed below: -

  1. RP is expensive and thus a "luxury" for the Indian industry.
  2. RP is not useful for my "industry".
  3. RP means "rapid production".
  4. We can get "permanent moulds" made in the same cost.
  5. We are using "3D CAD" softwares and hence do not need prototyping.

Luxury
There have been cases when people have had to go through a series of management approvals before getting a sanction for a new design to be prototyped by using the RP techniques. Once the "unjustifiable" cost was incurred, the entire team of designers and the management saw the "more than justifiable" benefits. The entire set of parts was re-ordered incurring double the expenditure to ensure that the mistakes of the first set were not repeated.

Industry

The "industry" for this argument is classified into two categories viz. scale wise & product/service wise. Each industry can utilize the RP techniques in different ways. The broad benefits of RP are Form, Fit, Function & Tooling. The extent of benefits of RP derived by a company depend upon the following factors:

  1. Extent of "newness" in the development.
    The more original the new design, the more it can benefit from the RP techniques. Major modifications in the existing designs have also reaped good benefits from RP techniques.

  2. Project Situation.
    The cost of change increases as the project advances. Hence RP is most useful in planning stage itself. May be product conceptualization, tool planning, bid planning or any other.

  3. Part Geometry.
    The more complex the part geometry in terms of shape, number and orientation of features, the more economical is the use of RP techniques. It is in such situations that the cost of manufacturing the part by conventional methods exceeds the RP cost.

  4. Management Vision
    Irrespective of the size or type of the industry, the companies that emphasize on innovation and doing things right the first time have made the most of the RP techniques.

Rapid Production
Since the RP yields parts that appear very similar to the end product, the expectation of properties from it also go higher. However, once the RP part is accepted as a "prototype" or a "sample", the true benefits are easier to accept. As of now, there are limitations in the RP techniques in terms of the materials, the accuracy and the surface finish achieved on the parts. These aspects do limit the extent to which the parts produced by RP techniques can be used as functional products.

However, the techniques are extremely useful even within these limitations and in many cases the parts have been put to functional trials.

Permanent Moulds

For simpler part geometries, at times, the permanent moulds can be done in the same cost as that of a RP part. But may not be always possible to match the time factors. Besides, as the part gets complicated the economics set in. The part geometry drives the selection of the right production process even in conventional cases and RP techniques too have to be applied with due consideration.

Incorrect selection of the process for particular part geometry should not go to the discredit of the technology.

3D CAD

Advances in 3D CAD modeling softwares have reduced the number of prototypes that may be required to evaluate a particular alternative. A part in hand, at times, is easier to understand than reviewing a number of views / sections. Evaluating the accessibility of critical areas during assembly, taking valuable inputs from non-CAD professional etc are some of the advantages of a physical model over a CAD image.

Thus 3D CAD softwares do not eliminate the need of prototyping. On the contrary, they ease the process of making a Rapid Prototype.

Conclusions

With the Indian industry accepting the global challenge, the fundamentals of survival & growth have changed from production centric to innovation centric. Product developments are being undertaken at various levels. After the initial sceptism, companies from various industries that range from small to corporate are incorporating RP techniques into the product development cycle. In fact, some companies have even made a policy to get even the smallest bush or pad prototyped by RP methods before the tooling is ordered for it.

Thus, many Indian companies have traveled their RP journey from luxury to necessity …
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